Remember, remember…
Amidst all the babble about “tea parties” and “astroturfing,” it is easy to miss the central fact of the matter: we are currently witnessing the greatest surge of direct citizen activism in the recent history of American politics. Whoever may be winning the ground wars, it is clear that apathy is taking it on the chin.
And it’s worth remembering that it all started two years ago today, when a group of about 35,000 people, self-organized and willing to vote with their wallets, defied the media and the political establishment.
For one brief moment, we proved that a small group of determined people could, through concerted action, seize the reins of the national conversation.
Happy anniversary.
Indeed. It’s going pretty much unnoticed, or rather being talked over, but Ron Paul really did start it all. It gets lost in the noise of crazies like Michelle Bachman and craven opportunists like Glenn Beck, but the heart of the matter is a mass of people profoundly dissatisfied with the way government works and the almost seemingly unexamined direction (or rather continental drift) it has taken in our lifetimes, and the gall to think they can do something about it.
Comment by Brad — 11/5/2009 @ 7:17 pm